Babri demolition case: Advani, Joshi, Kalyan to appear in court through video conferencing

Sadhvi Rithambara and former union minister and ex-MP CM Uma Bharti will appear before the CBI court in person on June 29 and 30, respectively.
Senior BJP leaders L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. (File photo by PTI)
Senior BJP leaders L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. (File photo by PTI)

LUCKNOW: BJP stalwarts, majority of whom are now part of party’s ‘Margdarskak Mandal’, have been given dates in June and July to appear in Special CBI Court in Lucknow through video conferencing in the Babri Masjid demolition case. The mosque was razed to the ground by a mob of karsewaks in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

Those BJP leaders who have been issued summons by the CBI court include former Deputy PM LK Advani, former Union Minister MM Joshi, Uma Bharti, former UP CM, and ex- Rajasthan Governor  Kalyan Singh and Shree Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust chairman Mahant Nritya Gopal Das.

The sources claimed that while LK Advani has been asked to appear before the court via video link on June 30 from his residence in New Delhi, Murli Manohar Joshi will appear on July 1, former UP CM Kalyan Singh on July 2, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das on June 23 and former Faizabad (now Ayodhya) district magistrate RM Srivastava on June 22.

Meanwhile, Sadhvi Rithambara and former union minister and ex-MP CM Uma Bharti will appear before the CBI court in person on June 29 and 30, respectively.

These leaders are among those 32 people who were accused of the conspiracy to demolish the disputed structure in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. Special CBI court judge Surendra Kumar Yadav has permitted nine of the 32 accused to appear before the court through video conference spelling out specific dates for each one of them.

 As per the court sources, nine persons, including LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, and Kalyan Singh, have been allowed to appear before the court through video conference. The court has also allotted dates for their appearance. The court has taken the decision to get the appearance of nine accused in the case through video conferencing in the wake of a health advisory for elderly persons who are supposed to remain indoors to evade the ongoing COIVD-19 crisis.

As per the sources, the National Informatics Centre, a Government of India body, will make arrangements for the video conference at the residences of BJP leaders and others to enable them to take part in the court proceedings. Special CBI court judge SK Yadav will use the facility available at the district judge’s courtroom, Lucknow.

It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had ordered the special CBI judge to conduct a day-to-day trial in the conspiracy case related to the demolition of Babri structure, concluding it in two years. The apex court had issued an order in this regard on April 19, 2017.

The Supreme Court had also allowed the CBI plea on restoration of conspiracy charges against the 32 accused persons calling the demolition of the disputed structure a crime that shook the “secular fabric of the Constitution.”

The court had termed the Allahabad high court’s February 12, 2001 verdict dropping conspiracy charge against Advani and others as “erroneous”.

Before the 2017 verdict of the apex court, there were two sets of cases relating to the demolition, going on in Lucknow and Rae Bareli. The first case allegedly involving unnamed “kar sevaks” proceeded in a Lucknow court and the second set of cases relating to eight VIPs was being heard in a Rae Bareli
court. In April 2017, the Supreme Court transferred the Rae Bareli case to the Special CBI court in Lucknow.

The Supreme Court on July 19, 2019 had extended time limit by six months for completing the criminal proceeding in demolition case and also set a deadline of nine months for the final order in the case. The deadline expired on April 19 and the special judge wrote to the apex court on May 6, seeking an extension.

The Supreme Court on May 8 issued a new deadline of August 31 with instructions to deliver the judgment by then.

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